Business Roundup

DSM will build a plant that makes urethane dispersion resins for waterborne coatings at its site in Meppen, Germany. The plant will cost roughly $25 million and open in mid-2007, the company says.

Airgas will buy the U.S. bulk industrial gas business that Linde was required to sell as a U.S. government-imposed condition of acquiring BOC. The purchase, for $495 million, includes eight plants that had sales last year of $154 million.

Calgon Carbon says the Federal Court of Canada has found the company's Canadian patent covering the use of ultraviolet light to prevent infection from Cryptosporidium parasites in drinking water invalid. Earlier this year, a New Jersey court also declared the patent invalid.

DuPont will double capacity for thick-film microcircuit materials at Electronic Materials DuPont Dongguan Ltd. in Dongguan, China. It says the project will be completed within the next two years.

Thai Ethoxylate, a 50-50 joint venture between Cognis and PTT Chemical Public Co., has opened a new plant in Rayong, Thailand, to produce fatty alcohol ethoxylates for the personal and home care industries. The plant will obtain feedstock oleochemicals from local sources and ethylene oxide from a subsidiary of PTT.

Lanxess will spend close to $8 million to expand ion-exchange-resin capacity at its Bitterfeld, Germany, site by the end of 2007. The firm says the expansion is in response to growing demand and goes beyond a $2 million expansion previously slated.

Almac Pharma Services has completed a $10.5 million revamp of its formulation operations in Craigavon, Northern Ireland. The 10,500-sq-ft facility provides formulation services for solid oral-dosage drugs from preclinical through pilot scale, according to Almac.

Lonza will manufacture Altus Pharmaceuticals' ALTU-135 at its facility in Kouim, Czech Republic. The drug, a combination of protease, lipase, and amylase enzymes, will soon enter Phase III trials in patients with pancreatic insufficiency.